The present disclosure relates to the effects of aging on the performance of integrated circuits and, more particularly, to a system and method for managing circuit performance and power consumption to compensate for the effects of aging by selectively adjusting supply voltage over time.
More particularly, during the design of an integrated circuit, a voltage-frequency curve is generated to describe the minimum supply voltage required to operate the integrated circuit at a specific frequency. Typically, this voltage-frequency curve includes a voltage margin to account for the effects of aging. That is, various failure mechanisms including, but are not limited to, time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), hot carrier injection (HCI), negative bias temperature instability (NBTI), positive bias temperature instability (PBTI), and electromigration (EM), cause the components (e.g., devices, interconnects, etc.) of an integrated circuit to degrade over time, thereby reducing their speed. Thus, a voltage-frequency curve that is associated with the beginning of life (BOL) of the integrated circuit will be different than a voltage-frequency curve that is associated with the end of life (EOL) of the same integrated circuit and, specifically, the minimum supply voltage required to operate the integrated circuit at a specific frequency will be lower at the beginning of life (BOL) of the integrated circuit as compared to at the end of life (EOL) of that same integrated circuit. Consequently, a “voltage margin” is typically used to ensure that, when the integrated circuit is incorporated into a system, it will operate at or above the specific frequency without fail throughout its expected lifetime. However, due to this voltage margin, the components of the integrated circuit will operate faster than necessary within the system at the beginning of life (BOL) and will, thereby consume more power than is necessary.